baked carrot cake doughnuts
A little bunny told me that these are the ideal weekend brunch for the spring.
Well, this and maybe some Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls.
I haven’t baked doughnuts in a long time – it would seem since last year’s Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts, right around this exact date, as a matter of fact. Doughnuts are one of my can’t fuck up recipe collections that, no matter how shit my mood is, always turn out right.
And these cuties are no exception. I mean, LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE THEY ARE. Nom-worthy and squee-worthy.
Baked Carrot Cake Doughnuts with lil piped carrots are precious, pretty, and proper for all of your spring entertaining escapades. A lightly sweet and nicely spiced dough glazed with cream cheese icing hinted with maple. Cozy, but seasonally appropriate. A platter of these and a Salted Caramel Rose Latte sound like just the thing for a jolly weekend get-together.
Bake Away The Day
Not quite, actually, since these will be done short of an hour.
To start, grate lots of carrots (about 3-4 large ones should do) and really squeeze the excess moisture out with paper towels. Too-wet carrots will create a gummy batter, which is not great. After the carrots are decently dried out, you will end up with 1 cup for use in the batter.
Whip together melted butter and brown sugar, then eggs, vanilla, Greek yogurt, and the carrots. Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and warming spices: cinnamon, ginger, and clove. Mix in the buttermilk. Your batter should be thick, but if it seems too gloppy, add in another tablespoon or two or milk to get it the right consistency.
Transfer the batter into a piping bag, no tip fitted (or, slice off the corner of a ziptop bag). Grease two 6-slot doughnut pans, then pipe the batter into each slot, filling about 2-3 of the way full.
Bake 10-12 minutes, until the doughnuts are poofy and firm. Let cool 10 minutes in the pan, then run a knife around the edges and pop the little dudes onto a wire rack.
Cream of the Cheese
I love today’s icing. I typically keep doughnut garnishes pretty basic – powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and maybe a hint of bourbon or something else – but today we’re whipping up an easy and more stable topping that won’t melt into the doughnut over the course of one day.
To make, simply beat cream cheese with vanilla, maple syrup, powdered sugar, and some milk. The result should be thick but dunkable. If it’s too thick, add another tablespoon or two of milk.
If you want to pipe the little carrots atop, remove about 1/3 cup of the icing and alternate red and yellow dyes until you achieve a nice orange color. Or buy orange dye, if available. I just followed some random directions on Google to get the hue I wanted. Fuck if I remember the link.
Dunk each doughnut into the glaze, letting excess drip off, then set onto a wire rack with a piece of parchment slid underneath to catch any oozes. Repeat until all the doughnuts are covered.
Let the glaze set a few minutes, then move the orange batch into a piping bag with a thin, round tip attached. To make the carrot shape, the best way I can describe the method is to make a dot with the glaze, then quickly lift the piping bag away without squeezing more glaze out to taper the end off. That’s a shit descriptor, but maybe it’ll make sense to one of you…You can make as many or as few carrots on each doughnut as you wish! You can definitely practice on a piece of parchment first if you’re nervous.
For the green, you can use little oregano sprigs or edible flowers.
Baked, unglazed doughnuts keep very well in the fridge for up to 3 days before decorating, or a month in the freezer. Glazed doughnuts will keep about 2 days before looking a little goofy. They’ll still taste good, but won’t be quite as aesthetically pleasing.
Enjoy your weekend! And hopefully, a doughnut or two.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a rating and comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!
Dough-nut be afraid:
Baked Bourbon Apple Cider Doughnuts
Baked Birthday Funfetti Doughnuts
Baked Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Doughnuts
Baked Biscoff Cookie Butter Doughnuts
Lucky’s Charmed Vanilla Doughnuts
baked carrot cake doughnuts
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt
- 1 cup shredded carrot, excess moisture removed
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/3-1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
maple cream cheese glaze
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup milk or water
- yellow and red food dyes, as desired.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 6-slot doughnut pans with oil or butter.
- In a bowl, beat the sugar and melted butter until combined. Whip in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, Greek yogurt, and carrots. Add the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running, stream in the buttermilk. If the batter seems too thick, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time to reach the desired consistency.
- Transfer the batter to a piping bag or a ziptop bag with a corner snipped off. Pipe into the prepared donut pans, filling 2/3 of the way full. Bake 10-12 minutes until the centers are set and an inserted toothpick emerges with just a few moist crumbs.
- Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then run a knife around the edges of each doughnut and move to a wire rack. Cool completely.
- When the doughnuts are cool, make the glaze. Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and milk. Add milk as needed, in 1 tablespoon increments, to thin. The glaze should be thick, but not as thick as frosting.
- If desired, set aside about 1/3 cup of the glaze and mix with yellow and red food dyes until an orange hue is created.
- Lay a piece of parchment paper under a wire rack. Dunk one side of each doughnut into the glaze, letting excess drip back into the bowl. Let the glaze set for 5 minutes. Transfer the orange glaze to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Pipe a small dot onto the doughnut, then quickly lift the icing away to create the carrot shape. Repeat as many times as desired. Enjoy!
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